Join the Conversation

Local leaders cheer Supreme Court prayer ruling

Brian Lyman, Montgomery Advertiser 3:13 p.m. CDT May 5, 2014

Buy Photo

Mayor Todd Strange speaks during the City of Montgomery National Day of Prayer observance at the Union Station Train Shed in Montgomery, Ala. on Thursday May 7, 2009.(Photo: Mickey Welsh/Advertiser)Buy Photo

Alabama lawmakers and local officials Monday cheered the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold sectarian prayer before public meetings.

In a 5 to 4 decision that split the court along political lines, the justices ruled that chaplains in a New York town could deliver explicitly Christian prayers before the start of public meetings, and rejected a suit that sought to make those invocations nondenominational.

"Prayer for wise counsel and wise government and those kinds of things, I suspect some people it would offend, but I think the common man appreciates it," Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said Monday.

The lawsuit was brought by two residents of Greece, New York, who said the town exclusively used Christian clergy to deliver opening prayers. The residents did not seek an end to the practice; according to the opinion, they wanted to limit the prayer to reference "'a generic God' and would not associate the government with any one faith or belief."

The litigants initially lost in district court but won on appeal; the U.S. Supreme Court then took the case. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said that prayer adds "gravity" to the start of a governmental session. The justice wrote that governments that invited prayer could not impose restrictions on the religious expression made in those invocations before the start of a session.

"Once it invites prayer into the public sphere, government must permit a prayer giver to address his or her own God or gods as conscience dictates, unfet­tered by what an administrator or judge considers to be nonsectarian," Kennedy wrote.

In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the town made no effort to invite clergy of other faiths to deliver the invocation. Kagan agreed that there was a "distinctive constitutional warrant" for legislative prayer, but said that at a town meeting, where citizens interact closely with elected officials, the government must make an effort to reflect all beliefs in a community.

"When citizens of all faiths come to speak to each other and their elected representatives in a legislative session, the government must take especial care to ensure that the prayers they hear will seek to include, rather than serve to divide," Kagan wrote. "No more is required—but that much is crucial—to treat every citizen, of whatever religion, as an equal participant in her government."

Kennedy wrote in his opinion that chaplains are constrained from delivering invocations that "denigrate nonbeliev­ers or religious minorities, threaten damnation, or preach conversion" and separate the body from its common purpose.

The rules of both the Alabama House and Senate require a prayer at the start of each session by a visiting clergy member, usually invited by a specific lawmaker and named the "chaplain of the day." The rules do not specify the type of prayer to be delivered, though the chaplains tend to be Christian. However, rabbis and at least one Muslim have delivered the invocation in recent years, according to House Clerk Jeff Woodard.

"It's a pretty diverse mix," he said.

The Montgomery City Council and Montgomery County Commission also open their sessions with prayer. Strange said he believed Christian and Jewish clergy had delivered the invocations, though he wasn't certain if members of other faiths had.

"From our perspective, we try to be as ecumenical as possible," he said.

Leaders of the Alabama Legislature praised the decision.

"Legislative prayer dates back to the very foundation of our democracy and it is a practice that is embedded into the rules of the Alabama Legislature," said Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, in a statement, adding that he would "continue to support the right of Alabamians to express their religious beliefs in public forums."

Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, also spoke highly of the decision, saying in a statement that prayer is "an indispensable component of our proceedings each day in the Alabama Legislature."

House Minority Leader Craig Ford, D-Gadsden also joined the choir, saying he agreed with the Supreme Court's reasoning.

"Faith is a personal decision, and that's what we do in the Legislature," he said. "We have all different faiths come up and offer prayer. We can't come up with a generic prayer, or the prayer wouldn't have any meaning to it."